From Prescription to Adaptation in the Future Productive City: Classroom-Inspired Principles for Design and Planning of Urban Agriculture

This chapter reflects on the educational experiences connected to the Cultivating Public Space project. From the onset, the project sought to engage students in creating a toolbox for urban agriculture in public space. Within the classroom, students translated the research findings, activities, and knowledge co-produced by the project partners into sustainable development and urban regeneration strategies based on urban agriculture communities and fully activate its potential as an engine of community cohesion and integration. This required thinking of urban agriculture as more than a collection of objects—boxes, toolsheds, and paths—but as holistic multifunctional landscapes designed to cultivate biophilia, food justice, public health, and community identity. It also demanded celebrating the uniqueness of each context and building upon each locale’s distinctiveness to co-create new visions exemplified as personal and collective stories of adaptation and transformations for all community members. The chapter ends with reflections on a few emergent principles inspired by the partnership between students and the communities to guide future urban agriculture research and practice.